Saturday, April 21, 2012

RIP Chumby

Today I am taking a short break from the Scrum for SharePoint series to cover another topic near and dear to my heart.

The Insignia Infocast 3.5 by Best Buy (similar to the Chumby One).

Way back in the mid-2000s, before we had the iPhone or Android or even webOS, a little company named Chumby appeared on the scene with a neat gadget that was going to replace your clock radio with something much cooler. Prototypes of the Chumby came out in 2006 and 2007, and the first widely-available consumer version was released in 2008. I was very excited to see the Chumby appear on the scene, in part because I was sad that the 3Com (Palm) Audrey had failed so miserably back in 2000.

It's hard to remember, but back in 2008, there was not much out there like the Chumby. The iPhone and Android operating systems were relatively new and still gaining traction. There were zero consumer grade tablets available on the market. Even with the iPhone and Android out there, they were geared towards phone devices. There were definitely no clock radio gadgets to compete with Chumby. So theoretically, the Chumby had a good chance to succeed.

The Chumby is not a tablet and it is not a phone or iPod-like device. It really has no equivalent out there in the world. It is first and foremost an internet clock radio. Think of your old Sony Dream Machine, add in the likes of Pandora and Shoutcast internet music and podcast services, and add the ability to change the clock face to one of hundreds of different options. That is a Chumby.

There are other things a Chumby can do, like display news feeds, Facebook, Twitter, internet web cams, and more. Yet at its core, the Chumby is a clock radio that can get live content from the internet.

My boys really enjoy the Sony Dash. We have itin our dining room.

I bought a Chumby One for my dad in 2009. At first, he didn't know what to do with it, but over time he came to appreciate the different clocks faces to choose from and its ability to play Pandora and other internet music services.

I got my first "Chumby" in 2010 when I picked up a Sony Dash for a relatively good price. However, even though I got a "deal" at the time, price was one of Chumby's downfalls: the Dash list price was $200 at the time--I think I got my for a "steep discount" at $150--and the Chumby-branded units were not much cheaper.

The Dash was a step up from the Chumby, as it had internet video as well. You could (and can still) get Netflix, YouTube and Hulu Plus video, among other choices. So it was worth a slight premium over the much smaller Chumby One (3.5" screen vs. 7" screen), but still a bit expensive for what you got.

We have installed the Insignia Infocast 3.5 in our master bathroom media station.

Later in 2010 I picked up Best Buy's Insignia branded version of the Chumby One, the Infocast 3.5. This time I got it for under $45 and had a $25 gift card to boot. Now that was a deal. Under $50 would have been the perfect price point to allow the Chumby to be more successful.

Alas, regular prices didn't get much lower than $100, most people didn't understand why they needed one in addition to their iPhones and iPads, and therefore not many units were sold. In 2011 Sony stopped making the Dash. Around that time Best Buy also stopped making the Infocast line. Later in the year, Chumby itself stopped making hardware as well, leaving the Chumby platform flailing around a little bit without much support. The company said they were going to focus on a connected TV platform, but nothing much came of it.

The Chumby network is still up and running--for now--but much like what happened to services like ReplayTV, it could be shut off at any time. This leads to one of my ongoing concerns with this particular platform: it is 100% dependent on having a network connection to work at all. Without a WiFi or optional Ethernet connection, a Chumby is essentially worthless. There isn't even a way to boot up a Chumby in to a disconnected mode. The thing just stops at the "Connecting to Network" screen and gives up.

Another issue was the app platform: all Chumby apps were free and had to be build on the Adobe Flash platform. While that worked well enough for the most part, there are two issues with it: no way for developers to make any money, and somewhat limiting of a platform. The Chumby is based on a modified Linux kernel, but won't run regular Linux or Android apps without major modifications. So it's a relatively closed platform.

I guess even back in 2008 we could see the writing on the wall, but I still had high hopes that a device dedicated to being an internet clock radio could survive. I still think there is a place for a Chumby-like device, with some tweaks to the platform. Using a phone or tablet as a stationary clock or radio is not always practical or economical. Sure, as an individual I can use my Android phone as an alarm or an iPad as a Pandora music player, but what about family or group situations? Sometimes a dedicated device is useful.

Maybe something else will come about to take Chumby's place? Or Chumby will get picked up by another company and the legacy will continue? I can only hope.

If I were looking for a chumby-like device at this point, rather than a chumby, I think I'd pick up one of the really cheap (<$100) Android tablets.

I could find Android apps that will do most of what I needed the chumby for--Xtreme Alarm Clock, for example, has all the same wonderful control-freak alarm settings, but even has a better interface (oh, MAN, I hate the chumby alarm clock interface... I ssh in and edit the alarms file by hand if I need to alter or add an alarm).

Heck, if I really wanted something just like the chumby, I could just use chumby's Android app.

It's too bad; we have two chumbys, and we really like them; they're oh-so useful, for our purposes. But at this point, there are just better technology options than the chumby.

Chumby's really not dead. All this RIP talk came from one comment by the former CEO Oien, who screwed the users and left. But 5 months after the "death," the servers are still up,the forums are jumping and the community is figuring out ways to keep the devices running, sometimes better than before. Really good stuff to see if you value the spirit of truly Open Source platforms. Check out the forum at:http://forum.chumby.com/index.php

Maybe some of you can help us keep the lights on! Chumby's no Android, but at least what you're doing doesn't go through Google.

Yes, Pandora has stopped working for me on all of our chumby devices in our house. And I can't seem to bring up the forums. I can get to my chumby online account and see the channels, etc. I'm hoping the open source community will help extend the life some more.

I didn't realize/know that the Chumby was in trouble. I love mine and have used it for a few years now. It stopped working and I rebooted it as usual but still no go? So I went to the website and it's not loading? So does that mean it has gone belly up? Still clinging on hope that it's just down temporarily as opposed to dead per this discussion thread.

I did a search to try and find out if this was the end for my device and ended up here... It's a sad day! I bought my chumby back in 4/2008. It's quirky, but it has been streaming Pandora faithfully for several years.

FYI, my screen just shows "Unabled to download control panel...". Chumby.com is down. I assume its the end.

Anyway, after reading your post I thought I should offer a virtual shoulder to cry on and see if anyone out there had any additional information.

Well, it looks like Chumby is back up for now, so go grab it while you can...

But there are instructions out there that also tell you how to find the cache of your profile on your physical chumby, and convert that instead. I can't point you to them, but the people at the sourceforge page above probably can.

(Argh, I really hate posting on blogger, the captchas have gotten a lot harder to read.)

Chumby is actually alive and (pretty) well right now- a great community effort. (Better since the company died!) Galadriel and all, come back to the forum and wish Chumby and (amazing) sixth anniversary-

http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=8290

And yes, you can retrieve your profiles, and add firmware to keep things running if the servers are down. Things actually seem a little more optimistic over there- Come put in a kind word for Duane and the others keeping things going- great community spirit. BTW, Pandora and iheart radio have been acting up on other types of devices, too- seems they want money more than love.

Come check in on the forum, and leave a "Happy Birthday Chumby" note. 6 years old - older than the iPhone!bobsz

If you can get a Sony Dash for a really good price, it's probably worth it. Sony is going to support it for a while. They've split their servers from Chumby's, so they're not dependent on Chumby anymore.

The Mondo might be better, if it's supported. Sony will keep the lights on for the Dash, but there aren't any new Sony or Chumby apps coming out. It does Pandora and Slacker and MP3s just fine, but there won't be many updates, if any at all. God forbid something breaks.

That said, it's still nice. I'm still waiting for an Android based clock to come out. A tablet or phone is just not a good alternative.

I have a Sony S (with a Chumby app) and Sony is now warning us the service can disappear at any time. I assume it runs off their servers and that will be the end of the Dash, too. With good community support, Chumby may actually outlast Dash.